Plainville, KS - OJ Van Maele of Tielt, Belgium, a well known linen fabric producer has been acquired for an unknown purchase price by the newly formed Garnell-Lake investment group.

This entity was created by Chuck Comeau, Dessin Fournir Companies’ Co-Founder & CEO and a group of design industry leaders from around the USA. Dessin Fournir Companies is a design firm specializing in luxury furniture, lighting and textiles. 

It is understood that Van Maele  will be allowed to continue to build on its 109 year-old legacy under the new name of “Van Maele Weavers” and will be run as a separate entity, reporting directly to the investor group.

OJ Van Maele is one of Belgium’s oldest linen mills supplying product to domestic and international customers. It was founded in 1906 and is run today by CEO Carl Holcomb, who will stay on at the helm of the firm. The company is a producer of high-end textiles and wall-coverings. While linen makes up most of its production, OJ Van Maele also works with raffia, horsehair, abaca, and other natural fibers.

Like many in the industry, Comeau says he has been a fan of OJ Van Maele for many years and recently learned of the company’s distress, which he says was traceable to the financial issues of the last decade. Determined to help the company, he reached out to a number of design world luminaries, all of whom felt as strongly as he about helping to preserve what could quickly become a lost art form. 

From there, the Garnell-Lake investment group was quickly formed to raise the necessary funds. Besides Comeau, the group includes Randy Powers/J. Randall Powers Design; Shea Soucie/Soucie Horner; Chris Hegner/Soucie Horner; Suzanne Tucker/Tucker & Marks; Tim Marks/Tucker & Marks; Suzanne Kasler/Suzanne Kasler Design; Winton Noah/Ainsworth Noah; Hal Ainsworth/Ainsworth Noah; Kerry Joyce/Kerry Joyce and Associates; Doug Kinzley/Kneedler Fauchere; and George Massar/Kneedler Fauchere. 

Preserving an artistry that is devoted to old world craftsmanship is a personal goal of Comeau’s, as well as all of his partners in this venture. The entrepreneur’s vision has always been at the core of Dessin Fournir’s philosophy. “We have chosen to preserve an Old World legacy of craftsmanship elsewhere forgotten,”Comeau says.